


inhuman

by Skyepilot



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Angst, Cold, Eating, F/M, Flirting, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, GH-325, Humor, IN SPACE!, Kissing, Knight in Shining Armor Daisy, Kree (Marvel), Morning Kisses, Talking, Team as Family, damsel phil, plot speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-15
Updated: 2017-10-15
Packaged: 2019-01-17 08:04:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12361239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyepilot/pseuds/Skyepilot
Summary: Set in S5, based on cousyrewatch of The Magical Place and how Daisy and Coulson always save each other.





	1. weapons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy and Coulson and Mack and Elena.

"If you're going up against the Kree, you'll need some serious weapons."

"Thanks, but," Mack begins, with a sly smile.

He sets down the unmarked case to complete the transaction, taking the data card from the table and slipping it into his pocket.

"We've got our own," he tells the alien merchant behind him, as he lets himself out onto the streets of the bazaar.

"¡Usted es un berraco!"

Her voice is in his ear, as he follows a different path through the narrow alleyways between the dealer stalls.

He hides a smile and brushes his thumb against his nose, looks around before heading on.

"A legend in his own mind," Elena elaborates thru the coms, as he starts to smirk. "You are not supposed to talk about us."

"Who said I was talking about you?" he says out loud, casually. "We've got science guy, and May. Don't forget about shotgun-axe guy."

"Why are we doing the cow when we could just knock over a Kree freighter?"

"Last time I checked, no cows in space," Mack answered, turning the corner into the dead end he was waiting for.

He does a quick check over his shoulder. "All clear."

"A Columbian expression," she explains. "Putting our money together for stuff like this. We should take the fight to them."

He waits for a moment until the outline of the door appears, swung open from the inside out.

"Honey, I'm home," he jokes, looking at her standing in the doorway with her arms crossed. They haven't had much time to think lately, much less be alone.

He wishes she would step out of that door and that they could explore the bazaar together. Reconnect.

Maybe even get some coffee or whatever it is you do in these parts.

"Get inside before someone sees us, uh?" She says it with regret, not like it's an order. And for a moment they're not agents, they're just here for each other.

On the other side beyond her, he can see the sterile halls of the base of operations, things in motion.

"Copy that," he sighs, and steps across the threshold.

The door is gone like it was never there.

 

###

  
"Uh, want to run that by me again?" she asks, rolling the glass of liquor between her fingers.

"Inhumans," he paused, waiting for her to catch on. "Kree monster slave-race?"

"Cool," she answers, rolling her eyes, and taking another drink to stuff the rising bile down. "Why are you telling me this again?"

"Word on the street is that Kree are looking for Inhumans. They're mythical, though. Like a mono-horned Rigelian racer."

"Mmm hmm," she hums, trying not to laugh at the idea of a space unicorn. Her informant doesn't believe in Inhumans, but he's fine with a talking raccoon.

She's seen the Nova Corps database. Several times.

"Okay."

"It's meant to get people worried that the Kree are experimenting," he continues. "To remind themselves that they're powerful and will rise again."

"Does this happen often?" she asks with an appalled expression.

But it's a rhetorical question. She's read every bit of their history. She knows the type.

"There are always rumors," he tells her tugging on the bottom of his Nova Corps uniform and sitting back from the bar.

"Thanks for the tip."

Pushing her drink back towards the barkeep, she slides the credits towards the officer and gets up from her seat.

"See ya," he tells her as she leaves a tip and makes eye contact with the bartender, then pushes her way out the door past other alien guests.

"Sorry."

"Yeah, you get used to it after awhile," she says, squinting at the light output from the sudden onslaught of advertising around her. "You were listening?"

He starts to take off his glasses, notices the set of his jaw, the way his eyebrows are furrowed, but she waves him off.

"You shouldn't have to," he mentions, sliding the glasses back into place. "And yes, I was listening."

"We should step up the timetable," she says, switching the subject. "Before they find us. Hit them first. Hard."

He nods back, and then his hand is on her elbow, guiding them to head down the street of the entertainment district, when she suddenly notices that they're not headed in the right direction.

"What's going on?" she asks, as he puts his hand on the small of her back and they come to a stop.

She glances at his face, then over his shoulder, and sees the booth with all the shiny, candy-coated objects hanging from the cart.

"Live a little," he tells her, with a small smile.

The twisted feeling in her gut starts to disappear, and she holds his gaze for a bit too long as he looks down and away, then reaches into his pocket.

She's been holding it for a bit too long lately.

"Whatever that is! It looks great, right?" he tells the cart minder, his whole face lighting up at the idea of trying something alien and new.

There are some things she never gets tired of.

  
###

  
"Candies! How fun," Elena says, reaching for one of them on the stick then pauses, and looks at Coulson warily. "I am not eating balls or something disgusting, right?"

"I have no idea," he says, almost laughing and sets the container down on the table in the commissary, unzips the front of his jacket.

"Down the hatch," Elena grins to Mack and then starts to eat, sliding the round objects off one at a time.

"The others?" Daisy asks, flopping down into the open chair besides Coulson.

"On their way," Mack says, sitting down and trying to fit his long legs under the table. "How'd it go?"

"Other than Daisy being insulted for ten minutes straight, I think it went okay," Coulson sniffs and sits back in the chair.

"Inhumans stuff, huh?" Mack asks, lowering his voice.

Daisy's eyes dart to Coulson's, like she kind of wants him to drop it, then starts to smile when he doesn't.

"Where do these people get off thinking that Inhumans are to blame for what the Kree have done?"

"Yeah. Las caremondas en espacio. Fascistas."

Daisy raises her eyebrows at Elena's agreement. "We know how to deal with people like that," she leans forward, putting her arms on the edge of the table. "Nova Corps sure isn't going to do it for us."

"They don't know you exist," Mack sighs. "Probably best to keep it that way. The guy I got the schematics from, he made it sound like the Kree are armed to the teeth. Wanted to sell me some black market stuff."

"Anything good?" Coulson asks curiously. "You know, for us puny humans."

Daisy flashes a smile at him, and reaches over to pat him on the wrist. "Don't worry. You can keep up."

When Elena laughs, they both look up at her then at Mack, as she finishes off the candy, licking her fingers.

"Oh really? Do tell," she says with a teasing grin.

Daisy's mouth opens slightly, while Mack shakes his head, and Coulson puts on his most confused expression.

She drops it when she sees the other team members start to arrive.

"Oh. Candy. My, how sticky it looks," Simmons says, moving her equipment further away from it on the table.

"Very sticky," Elena says, then winks at Daisy.

  
###

  
"It's not like that."

"Hey, no judgement, I just figured with the two of you and how he chases you then you chase him..."

Daisy laughs for a moment watching her mimic running as they float together.

"He believes in me. He always has my back. It's nice. I don't want it getting...complicated," she replies as she adjusts the gravity setting on her boots.

"No gravity sucks, my powers don't work the same," Elena complains while they drift in the test chamber.

"We're going to have to do this in a single shot. We don't get another chance. Ready?"

"Mack thinks the same thing. That it complicates. It just means you got hurt and you're afraid. But that wasn't your fault."

"So, are we practicing floating in space because we're dead?" Daisy deadpans, trying to shift the subject.

"The problem is they might not stay, you know? Sometimes they have to keep moving."

"At the moment," Daisy chimes in, "None of us are going anywhere. And so far, our simulated mission is a failure."

"Because he's older doesn't mean he can't move on. He already tried once. Because you did."

"Time-out," Daisy sighs, and shuts off the anti-gravity as they both land on their feet on the solid floor beneath them. "I don't think of Coulson as old, and he wasn't with her because I was with Linc-"

"Did you love him?" Elena asks, then takes the controls from Daisy, and offers an apology. "I'm sorry. Let's try again."

"No," Daisy answers before the switch is flipped. "I tried. I wanted someone like me. But he wasn't. Being Inhuman didn't make him like me at all."

"And Coulson is?"

Daisy nods, wordlessly.

Then nods again as Elena pops the switch.

  
###

  
"I know you're distracted, but, you have to make time."

"Is this a tip for dating Lola or about me and Elena?" Mack chuckles. "Last week, I was trying just to not get eaten, by whatever that thing was."

"It was a Goom," he answers excitedly. "From a planet in the Centauri II system. I looked it up."

That earns him an eyeroll from Mack as he extends a hand for another tool to get their bucket of junk up and running again.

"You're enjoying this aren't you?"

"Parts of it," Coulson admits, handing a tool up. "Other parts of it, not so much. Daisy and Elena, and the idea that the Kree could get their hands on them."

"Everyone's got it backwards. About who the real monsters are," Mack agrees with a grunt as he locks the coupling into place.

"That's what scares me. On Earth it was a fight, sure, but it was familiar. All of this is new. Figuring out who our allies are..."

"At least we have each other."

"We're family."

"Sure. Some of us closer than others," Mack teases. "Me? I'm messy. I think about dragging her into it. Whether that's fair to her or not."

"It's hard not to be scared sometimes," Coulson admits. "I'm not used to getting to hold on to people I like."

"I guess we're both lucky they want to keep us puny humans around." Mack closes up the panel and steps down from the ladder. "Ever think about what your life would be like without her?"

"Try not to," he smiles. "Daisy makes me want to dream a little larger. Pieces of a puzzle." He thinks on it as Mack wipes the grime from the machine parts off of his hand. "Dead again, for starters," he muses. "Or worse. Boring."

"Same. Elena took a bullet for me," Mack says, shaking his head at the memory. Getting suddenly somber for a moment.

"They feel responsible to do more. That's why we-"

Mack raises his eyebrow at the pause, at the way that Coulson just caught himself.

"Why we'd go to the ends of the galaxy, take on the Kree?"

"Yes."

  
###

  
"They've got Coulson."

Mack reaches out for her and pulls her in tight, watching for her.

He can see the Kree ship pulling away then make the jump out of view.

"We'll get him back, Daisy," Elena promises.


	2. cold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy rescues Coulson.

She checks the layout again on the display, careful with the amount of light it's producing.

A lot of things are different out here. Some are the same.

The Kree still need air to breathe, but they like it cold.

The plans Mack acquired appear to be out of date. She's going to have to improvise.

She'll never pass for a Kree in their uniforms. She's too short.

Although, Coulson would appreciate the joke.

It's all getting a little too Star Wars now that the Kree took him.

Her and Elena are illegal, but Vin-Tak had been right. The Kree were happy their experiments were a success.

Inhumans were uncontrollable weapons designed with a careful balance in mind, but they could fight back, overpower their masters.

But humans could be controlled. An entire planet of puppets for the Kree to master.

She's going to make them pay for what they did to Coulson.

Sliding down the floor from the vent, she replaces the cover and moves along the wall.

The only thing between her and the vent at the other end of the hall are a couple of Kree.

No big deal.

The plan is to get to the containment unit, get Coulson, then get out through the ventilation shafts.

Fighting their way out is not an option.

That is if Coulson is in any shape to walk. No, don't think about that. At the way her breath hangs in the air.

She needs a distraction.

Reaching her hand out, she sends a wave towards the controls on the door, enough pressure to make it slide open.

The Kree do look thrown off guard, but don't quite take the bait.

One thing she's learned about the Kree is that it doesn't take much to make them act aggressively.

"Let's try this again," she mutters to herself and then sends a blast that shoves one of them into the other.

They start to argue about who shoved who first. Perfect.

As they start to shove each other intentionally now, she smiles to herself and stalks the edges of the room until she's hidden again.

With a boost of her powers, she's back up inside the shaft.

And on her way to Coulson.

  
###

  
The glass is cold to her touch. It reminds her of the chamber she found Mike in at the villa in Italy.

She has to do this on her own, she can't open a signal and risk being caught, just to ask someone more science-y.

They'd been told what to expect, about the Kree's love of technology and experimentation.

It makes her sick, it reminds her of Whitehalll, of HYDRA and what they did to her mother.

Coulson looks peaceful, and intact, which is a relief. In fact, he just looks like he's sleeping.

Not that she knows what that looks like, she doesn't know that she's ever seen him really rest.

He's always thinking, his mind working, thinking about how to help, what others need first.

She wants him out of this chamber, her mind starts to itch with wanting. Just to touch him, to put her arms around him for a moment.

His prosthetic is missing, too, she doesn't see it anywhere in the room.

And he's wearing some sort of fitted bodysuit that must be protecting him from the temperature.

She looks at the controls and makes a choice, then backs it out again and chooses another button.

The chamber starts to depressurize and open and she steps back as the released air blows against her.

Coulson is still, and she puts her hand to his arm. So cold.

"Please, come back to me," she tells him. Begs. "Please. Coulson."

His eyelashes flutter and then his eyes open, bluer than she remembers. They widen as she bends over him.

"Daisy."

His mouth curls into a smile as he says her name, and she has to fight back tears for a moment.

She was so worried when they took control of him they did something to his mind.

She didn't want them to take him away and just leave this body. She knows what that feels like, to be hollowed out.

It seems worse, the idea of having to watch it happening to him. Knowing.

"Is this a rescue?" he asks, his eyes fixed at her. Then he reaches out a hand, until he finds her arm.

"You can't see," she realizes, and helps him sit up, swing his legs over the side, touching him, guiding him up.

She'll have to save the hugs for later.

"It's okay," he tells her, tucking his arm in hers. "I trust you."

  
###

  
"Not that I mind you being my eyes, but I do like having my own back."

She smiles and watches as he pulls the cozy sweater over his head, as he gets the nod he can leave the medbay.

"Did they do anything to you?" she asks tentatively.

"I'm fine, Daisy," he smiles at her pensive face. "Everything checked out."

"I know," she nods and then steps closer to him. "I wasn't talking about that. Did you find any answers?"

"No," he says thoughtfully, watching her expression. "They found me."

She looks away with a raise of her eyebrows, at the coy deflection. "I know what you're doing."

"It was like being in a dream, like I had never died. And then I woke up. To you."

He puts out a hand to lead them out of the bay and down the sterile hallways of the base.

"Like the Framework," she tells him. They're moving in the direction of the commissary, he's probably hungry.

"No, that was a nightmare. Here, I could search, find answers, but what I found wasn't enough."

He stops for a moment, not at the dining hall, but at a viewpoint on the ship, to look out into the galaxy. At the stars.

The light from beyond casts a blue glow that reminds her of the chamber where she found him.

She feels him straighten slightly as she wraps her arms around him lightly, then tightens her embrace.

HIs head touches the top of her, and she feels his hand land on her back.

"It wasn't real," she tells him, frustration in her voice. It was just meant to send him hunting down rabbit trails, to keep his mind distracted.

"I think it was," he answers, drawing back, his hand on her shoulder. "I was linked up to some kind of supercomputer, with thousands of other minds."

Something in her twists, a trigger of a memory of Hive, and he lets go so she can slip her arms around herself.

"What did you find?" she asks, as he stares out the window again, because she almost feels like she has to.

"That sometimes the answers aren't an explanation. They're a purpose," he says, hesitating for a moment, then turning to her. "Or a person."

A sense of relief washes over her at the way he says it, so warm. She feels warm, in fact, it takes her off guard.

"I'm starving," he tells her with a smirk, holding her gaze. "You want to get something to eat?"

  
###

  
Things get back to normal. As normal as things can be in space.

But it's not as cold now.

"Daisy!"

Okay, parts of her are still cold.

"I just need you to warm me up," she pleads, wrapping her hands around his arm, using him as an anchor to pull herself closer.

"You could've just asked," he replies, in that sleepy, rumbling morning voice she loves, as he reaches his fingers under the blanket and grabs her foot.

She looks at the blinking light beside the bed and then switches it off.

"Not going to get in your morning workout?" he asks her, like he's pleased at the idea, she can already hear the smirk forming.

"I thought I'd switch up my routine," she says, taking him by the wrist and then moving over him until she has him pinned under her.

She can feel the temperature drop now that she's exposed, but his skin is hot underneath her, as her hands explore beneath his shirt, tickling the hair along his chest until he just starts to squirm.

The gooseflesh on her skin stands up, and he rubs his fingers along her legs and arms to warm them up, before settling them on her thighs and digging his fingers in until she rocks her body up against him.

Another wave of warmth hits her, and she leans down to press her lips against his, he only just hesitates because sleep is still in their mouths, but he wakes them up, comes alive under her.

It's the kind of hot that makes you want to melt. Where a cool shower will be perfect after.

But first, you have to melt together.

It's the answer to a question they had once.


End file.
